Case study · The Finance Woman

A talk people took part in, instead of a PowerPoint

34 calls booked by the end of the weekend, double last year. Romany Youell had a stage, a room full of pet business owners and one big question: how do you get people to act, not just nod? She wrote the talk; I built it into something the room could do on their phones while she was still speaking.

Client: Romany Youell, The Finance Woman
Event: Pet Pro Expo, Birmingham, 3 October 2026
What I built: The slides, a phone remote, a live check-up and the follow-up email

The opening slide of the talk, titled The cost of waiting, with a woman on the phone and a laptop. — The opening slide of “The Cost of Waiting”.

The brief

It was Romany’s second year speaking at the Expo. Last year she used simple slides and a booking link on screen. This year she wanted the room to feel the cost of putting money decisions off, and to leave with a next step, not just a business card.

Her talk was already written: a running order of her own, slide by slide. My job was to turn it into something that worked in the room, on the day, on venue wifi, with a room full of phones.

What I built

Animated slides. Forty-three of them, in her brand, one idea per slide. Big type, a little motion, nothing that needed reading from the back.

A slide reading: Remember the thing you thought of at the start? — Early on, she asks the room to think of one thing they keep putting off. Here, at the end, the slide brings them back to it.

A remote with a prompter. Romany drove the talk from her own phone: next and back, her talking notes for every slide, and a button to jump to the live check-up. The slides and the remote share one list of steps, and an automated test checks they never drift apart, because a remote that is one slide out in the middle of a talk is no use to anyone.

A live check-up for the room. At the end, the audience scanned a code and took the Pet Money Checkup: six short questions about their own business and money, in about a minute. As people finished, their animal avatar (and, if they chose, their first name) joined a live wall on the big screen, with the room’s answers building up beside it.

The live wall: animal avatars with first names gathering around a QR code under the headline Let’s actually find out. A label reads Demo, not the real room. — The live wall filling up. This is the deck’s demo mode with made-up names, not the real room.

A slide asking do you have income protection, with the answer options and a large percentage of the room who have none. A label reads Demo, not the real room. — Each question came back on the big screen with the room’s answer. Demo figures shown here; on the day, 72% of the room said they had no income protection.

The Pet Money Checkup on a phone, asking what do you work with, with dog, cat, small pets, exotics and a bit of everything to choose from. — The check-up, on an audience member’s phone.

Romany’s phone remote showing her notes for the final slide, with Back and Next buttons and a live count of the room. — Romany’s remote, with her notes and the live count.

A personal result, then a guide by email. Each person saw their own score and the top areas to look at first. If they wanted, they could have a 13-page guide sent to them by email.

A slide listing possible answers: an old pension, no protection, 50 thousand pounds sitting in cash, a mortgage decision, no investing, no retirement plan. — The “maybe it’s…” slide, before the check-up.

How it held together

Nothing to install and no logins: it all ran in the web browser. A small online service kept track of the room, and each person’s result was worked out on their own phone, so it still appeared if the wifi wobbled. The wall only ever knew a count and, if someone chose to give one, a first name.

What happened

140scanned the code and took the check-up

65signed up to receive her guide by email

34booked a call by the end of the weekend

Three in four people who finished took a next step. By the end of the weekend (Sunday 4 October), 34 people had booked a call with Romany, 29 of whom had never contacted her before. That’s double the bookings from her talk last year, up from 16.

The detail: 129 of the 140 got all the way to their result, and 98 of those 129 (76%) either asked for the guide or booked a call.

I can’t tell you which bookings came from the guide email, because the calendar doesn’t record where a booking came from. Most of the people who booked hadn’t asked for the guide at all, so I won’t claim the email did it.

“Don’t sort everything. Just sort the next thing.” Romany’s closing line on the day.

“We had SO many people tell us how much they loved the presentation and the response has been beyond anything I expected.” Romany Youell, The Finance Woman, on LinkedIn

What I’d do differently

Conference wifi is slow, and the “send my guide” button didn’t say it was working. Some people pressed it several times and got several emails. I’ve since fixed it so each address gets one guide however many times it is pressed.

Have a talk, or a room to win over?

If you’d like something like this for your own event or customers, tell me what you’re trying to do and I’ll tell you honestly whether it’s worth building.

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